Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/215

Rh sites, where light could be obtained only from the front and back, and in some cases from the roof.

In no instance is the accommodation provided for reference work equal to that found in the largest of the provincial public libraries, nor, probably, is this needed, as the British Museum, with its magnificent stores of books, gives facilities to Londoners which no local library can hope to provide. The best that can be done by them is to provide for the readers the most useful of the ordinary works of reference, which satisfy the needs of three-fourths of the readers, and refer the remainder to other libraries for information upon subjects to which they cannot provide any clue.

In an account of the public libraries of London, that of the Guildhall naturally takes first place, for there was a public library here as early as 1425. It lasted to 1550, when the building was dis: mantled, and the valuable manuscripts and incunabula scattered. In 1824 it was resolved to re-establish the library, and it was carried on in various unsuitable rooms until 1873, when the present building was opened for public use.

The new library and museum was built from the design of Sir Horace Jones, on a site at the east end of the Guildhall. It has a frontage of 150 feet to Basinghall Street, and a depth of 100 feet. The building consists mainly of two large halls, placed one over the other, with committee room, muniment room, and reading-room for directories, &c., adjoining. The museum occupies the large hall in the basement, and the library is placed above it.